Sustainability is barely an option any more, companies are beginning to understand and implement it as an essential basis for the success and long term survival of their businesses. And beyond the many environmental and social benefits of sustainability, perhaps one of the strongest arguments for sustainability is that of attracting new talent into the organization.
The pandemic was a primary point of inflexion in the acknowledgement of sustainability as a priority both for established employees and those looking for new job opportunities. The instability of the sanitary crisis prompted a shift of the corporate main focus towards saving the planet and ensuring employee, client and other stakeholders’ wellbeing through the implementation of strong sustainability plans and strategies.
Increasing evidence
New studies suggest the direct correlation between implementing sustainability practices and initiatives, and the positive impact on the company’s human resources and profits. In fact, among job seekers, there is a growing tendency of attraction towards organizations with sustainable or social practices, including community involvement or ethical governance.
This is especially true among young or new talent looking for job opportunities, who seem to be significantly more attracted or drawn to companies which are environmentally friendly; additionally, they are more likely to stay in a company long term when the latter has a sustainable agenda. A study by Network for Business Sustainability points out three essential reasons why sustainability is such a valuable and appealing factor:
- Sustainability is a source of pride: Employees can feel a sense of pride when working for a company with a strong sustainable reputation and status, emanating from sustainable practices that exceed the industry’s norms, through external recognition or awards etc.
- Sustainability is synonymous with caring: Caring about the environment and about the impact on society a company may have is for many a sign that the company will probably also care about employees wellbeing. However, this care for the environment and greater society must not solely be linked to the idea of competitive advantage and profit but rather be a sincere act for good.
- Connecting organization values to personal values: Sustainability can be the main tool for matching job seekers’ values to the organization, and such a match is, and has for many years been, a decisive factor for making decisions.
Competitive advantage
Now that we have understood how sustainability can be a decisive factor for attracting people into the organization, it is not less important to analyze the benefits of such attraction as a source of competitive advantage and innovation.
When sustainability becomes an essential part of the company’s culture and purpose, it will undoubtedly, as researchers suggest, attract more people to seek a job in the organization. And so reason tells us that the more applicants you can draw into the company, the bigger the chances of hiring top performers.
Additionally, studies also show that younger generations feel especially drawn to have sustainability be a part of their professional life, and consider it as an important element to take into account when deciding to apply to jobs. In this regard, the attraction of young and upcoming talent is a window of opportunity for innovation and modernization of organizations.
Transparency and effective communication
Of course sustainability is far more complex than just pledging to care for the environment, and so its effectiveness for environmental and social well being, as well as for successfully attracting people into the organization, is a combination of transparency, traceability, impact measurement and honest communication.
When communicating sustainability initiatives during recruitment there are two important things to remember: creating value for job seekers and avoiding greenwashing. It may seem obvious but it is not less relevant. On the one hand, it is crucial to find as many and as good a-channels as possible to reach and inform potential applicants about the company’s sustainability strategy. On the other hand, coherence is needed between what is communicated and corporate sustainable practices, otherwise, many could be resentful, leave, and furthermore, the reputation and credibility of the company will suffer greatly.
Engaging through transparency
We believe and work for transparency to be one of the key values driving the fight for climate action, as it is the only way to understand what we are doing wrong, what we are doing right and what it is that we are not doing yet.
Because being transparent is not only an externality to a company, or a given organization, to help build trust and reputation; it is in fact also a great learning and improvement mechanism. You cannot manage what you don’t understand. And so we advocate for transparency, integrity and precision as imperatives to the fight against climate change.
In DoGood we are convinced of the need to understand and manage efforts to achieve a sustainable transition inside an organization for the correct and efficient functioning of the business and the community it operates in. We alone cannot achieve the substantial changes necessary, but we work on the basis of collaboration, transparency and accuracy in order to bring light to sustainable actions.
In this regard, it is essential to our work to promote good corporate governance, meaning that the processes of disclosure and transparency are followed so as to provide regulators and shareholders as well as the general public with precise and accurate information about the financial, operational and other aspects of the company, including a more accurate definition of the ESG performance.
We have developed a corporate government tool that helps establish ESG impact objectives for employees in regards to the sustainability strategy of the company. Through our technology we are able to activate and track employees’ impact, creating engagement that translates into improved ESG metrics, reputational value and an overall positive impact for the environment and society.
If you want to know more about how we work to create a positive social and environmental impact, click here.
